OAKLAND / City attorney warns against ending ban on herbicide use

Oakland City Attorney John Russo has warned that the city may be the target of costly lawsuits if it overturns a ban on herbicides and begins using Roundup to kill problem weeds on city property.

In a letter to the City Council, which is to consider a plan tonight to overturn the 8-year-old ban, Russo said the city could expose itself to lawsuits from city employees or anyone who claims herbicides have caused heath problems.

Homeowner groups and park volunteers have backed Councilwoman Jean Quan's plan to lift the ban so the city can combat highly flammable, non-native plants such as eucalyptus and French broom. The city is considering using Roundup, or glyphosate, which is the most popular -- and controversial -- herbicide in the world.

Some studies have linked the herbicide to an increased risk of miscarriage, premature birth and a cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. But other studies have noted that it dissolves in water and diffuses more rapidly than most other pesticides and herbicides.

Russo's letter potentially opens a new set of concerns in Oakland's debate over herbicides.

"Relaxing the herbicide policy poses certain risks, which the City Council must weigh against the benefits," said Russo, who was co-author of the original ban as a councilman in the mid-1990s.

His letter said the city needs to consider the possibly of damage claims or lawsuits by city employees involved in spraying if they suffer health problems. He also said the city, because of herbicide use, could be added to civil lawsuits as a "deep-pockets" defendant by anyone in the future who sues over potential health risks associated with herbicides.

But it is unclear if Russo's warning will deter a council majority from supporting Quan's measure to resume using herbicides under limited conditions. Quan said she agreed to further precautions at the request of environmentalists and other council members.

City employees would either paint the herbicide directly on plants or spritz -- spray it with a small hand pump, she said.

"We're only talking about three to six gallons a year" in the city, she said. "We'll try to do it in safest manner possible."

The local chapter of the Sierra Club opposes Quan's legislation and all spraying but "does not oppose targeted painting of cut eucalyptus stumps with herbicide" to prevent the trees from growing back. But opponents of any use of herbicides say the city has never determined whether using the chemicals would cost less than other eradication methods.

"Spritzing is still spraying," said Michelle Miller of the group Stop Toxic Trespass. "They really haven't looked at more creative alteratives to using chemicals."

Opponents also said the city would probably end up using a lot more herbicide that Quan estimates to clear thick groves of eucalyptus trees.

But Quan said her plan is modest, despite the controversy. Under existing laws, she said, the city allows private contractors to use as much as 800 pounds of Roundup a year on city-owned golf courses.

"We haven't seen any liability from that, so I don't think that three to six gallons on steep hillsides will be a great problem," she said.